Lesson #12
Your billionaire will not know when to stop until it is too late.
The day Constantijin and I broke up came as a surprise. Will you believe it? I mean, I should have, like, totally expected it. But I hadn’t, and I paid the price for it.
It was three in the afternoon, and the entire floor of Kastein Inc. was completely quiet. It was usual these days, as if everyone was affected by the tension between Constantijin and me.
These days, I did my best to drown my heartache in work, and I was doing so well even Charli ran out of snowflakes to pass on to me.
“Go and take a break, Yanna,” Charli growled. But because she had this really cool French accent, it ended up sounding something really sophisticated, like she had just told me her favorite flower was Casablanca lily. You know what I mean.
I planted myself next to the door adjoining our offices. “No. It just occurred to me that we’re not taking advantage of the tween market here in the U.S. and I found the perfect manga---”
“If you do not leave your office in five seconds and have your lunch, I will assign you to take on a classic literature project with Arian.”
“I’m going.” God, Charli was so devious. She just knew what my worst fears were. If that ever happened, I knew Arian would take every chance she could get to make it clear to me that her Ivy League diploma made her the better judge about literature.
“Yadda, yadda, yadda,” I muttered to myself as I stepped out of the office.
And then I heard it.
Across the hall, near the doors leading to Constantijin’s offices, I heard his voice – and hers. Arian’s.
They were just talking about…work. They had to be talking about work. What else could they even talk about? By the time I finished rationalizing the situation, I was standing before the corner of the hallway, and one step was all it would take for them to see me.
Arian was giggling. "Mr. Kastein, you shouldn't say such things!”
“Constantijin, please. You make me sound too old for you when you call me like that.”
Arian’s tone became husky. “Then Constantijin, you can’t say I’m beautiful. It’s not right when you have a girlfriend.”
“Why is it wrong when I’m only stating a fact?”
My heart lurched. It was like déjà vu, a nightmarish version of the exchange I had with Drake a few days ago.
Constantijin wasn't saying anything wrong. In fact, he wasn't even saying anything I hadn't heard before. Constantijin was the type who dished out compliments all the time. He told his sixty-something housekeeper she was beautiful all the time. He complimented the shy receptionist at the lobby all the time, telling her she had great taste in clothes, that her hair was pretty.
He was that kind of man, and none of it used to matter.
Until now.
This time, his words sounded different, and my chest slowly started to ache.
"How are you and Yanna?"
Damn her, goddamn her for asking!
There was a moment for silence before Constantijin replied, a bit flatly, “We are okay.”
Ha! Take that, Arian!
Granted, it wasn’t the best thing to say about a relationship, but “okay” was still better than “not okay”.
Constantijin continued, “We enjoy each other's company, that's all."
"You mean you love each other," Arian teased.
Damn her. Goddamn her. I so knew what she was after and it was my blood – my blood, which was, like, already flooding the entire floor in an invisible stream of heartbreak.
I hurt so much I thought my heart couldn’t bleed any more, but Constantijin proved me wrong with just one word. “No.” And as if that didn’t hurt enough, he said lightly, “Yanna’s known since day one it was never about that."
I covered my mouth before they could hear me gasp.
Constantijin’s voice took in a warm, seductive tone. “But who knows? Maybe someone like you could change my mind."
Arian didn't get to answer that anymore because by then, I had gone around the corner. “What the f**k did you say?”
Lesson #13
Your billionaire will be very good at making you cry, in more ways than one.
Arian was shocked. Then her eyes gleamed with smug malice, even though she did her best to hide it by letting out a fake moan of horror. Honestly, I couldn’t, like, care less about her.
What really, really hurt was the lack of surprise on Constantijin’s face, as if he had wanted this all along.
When neither of them answered, I shrieked again, “What the f**k did you just say to her, Constantijin?”
His name seemed to be the magic word everyone was waiting for. Doors started opening at the same time, heads bobbing in and out as they tried not to so obviously watch the show.
Arian shook her head in shame sympathy. “Oh, Yanna, you weren't supposed to--”
Irritated by the mere sound of her voice, I took a deep breath, glanced at Arian, and gave her the finger. I heard choked laughter behind me. Arian started for me, but suddenly Drake was there, gripping her by the shoulders. He whispered something into her ear, and Arian whitened before stalking off.
A chilly mask had slipped over Constantijin’s face. “That was uncalled for, Yanna.”
In the act of giving Drake a grateful smile, I whirled back to Constantijin when I realized what he had just said. “Did you just, like, side with her?” Even though my voice was starting to hurt my own ears, I couldn’t stop shrieking. I just couldn’t.
“This is not the place.” The look of contempt that accompanied his words hurt.
I knew he was right. Of course I, like, f**king knew that. But let him tell that to my heart – my super bleeding-to-death-heart and, damn them, I wasn’t even exaggerating.
It was a struggle not to cry as I spoke but I managed to keep the tears from falling. “Why did you even have to say t-those words?”
Constantijin thankfully didn’t try to pretend he had no idea what I was talking about. “It was a f**king joke. And yes, I admit it was a stupid one, but it was a joke.”
"Jokes are half-meant," I cried out.
Constantijin spat something out in Dutch before saying tiredly, “For pity’s sake, don't start on me with that.”
And that was what did it, that final kick Alyx told me I was in the habit of waiting for before I could make myself…give up.
He sounded tired.
He made it sound I was, like, this f**king burden to him and I hadn't even known it. How sad was that? How humiliating? All this time, I had been wrong. I thought he didn’t want me to love him because it made him aware of how much he loved me back, of how much like his dad he could be if he let himself love me.